It was a big day for NBCs The Voice. Monday marked its second foray into live shows. It also marks my second year of attending them and bringing back the behind the scenes details to The Hollywood Reporters readers.
PHOTOS: 'The Voice' Teams: Meet Season 2's Performers
To this reporter, the shows stars and crew had a much more calm demeanor than last season. With its high ratings and unique take on the genre, gone was the need to prove that it could carve a niche in the densely populated world of TV singing competitions.
Blake Shelton and Christina Aguileras teams were the first up to compete for Americas votes. And while Ive learned that performances can be a quite different animal on TV compared to experiencing them live and with a jazzed up crowd, Ill venture to say that I thought the night had some strong performances (Erin Willett, Jordis Unger, Jesse Campbell) and ones that pulled off some surprising range (Jermaine Paul, Naia Kete).
But, you came here to read about the behind the scenes. So without any further ado, here are 9 things that you didnt see on television.
1. Turn up the air conditioner please. Of all the singing competitions Ive attended live, I sincerely enjoy attending The Voice the most. But, there is one thing that continues to be a problem at the Warner Bros. Studio Lot Stage: Its still really hot in there. Someone has got to take a look at that air conditioner.
VIDEO: 'The Voice': Behind the Scenes at L.A. Food Bank
2. No bullying allowed. Im going to try and leave the warm up guy (who Im told by other reporters uses the same jokes at different shows) alone this year. Hes a necessary evil if the series wants the audience to stay energetic through the two-hour taping. But, he said something that Im not sure Ive ever heard him say before.
As you probably know, The Voiceprides itself on being the nice singing show (at least to the performers, between the coaches is another story). So, the warm up guy tells the crowd that theres no booing allowed. If you liked the performance, scream and yell and be supportive, he said. And if you dont like the performance, then scream and yell and be supportive. Well, that makes it easy, doesn't it?
3. Its not all live, but duh. Typically, Ive experienced that if a show can pre-tape something before the live show airs, it will. With plenty of moving parts that could go wrong during a live show and if pre-taping a segment doesnt affect the competition results, then why not? Mondays episode taped the entire opening segment up until Jermaines performance. I believe it took about two takes to get it right.
PHOTOS: 'The Voice' Season 2 First Look -- Notable Quotables From the Show's Coaches
4. Sorry, Bieber is not here. I said I was going to leave the warm up guy alone, didnt I? Well, this was too good not to mention. There was a group of eight-year-olds who had signs saying, We love you, Adam. You have moves like Jagger. And the guy decided to ask the girls what they thought moves like Jagger meant. They clearly had no clue, but he kept asking them repeatedly. Awkward. It ended with him asking if they like Justin Bieber too -- and this was surreal -- one of the girls started screaming as if she thought the pop star was going to walk into the studio like some episode of Punk'd. Again, awkward.
5. Christina is puddy in her fans' hands. Part of the levity of the night was seeing its diva coach run around without her shoes on and signing autographs. There was also a fan who came all the way from Brazil to see the show and she got up to give him a hug. Aw.
6. A celebration of Betty White. As you saw on the show, Betty White was there to promote her new prank series, Betty Whites Off Their Rockers. What you didnt see was that during the commercial break, the production played the Golden Girls theme in honor of her.
STORY: 'The Voice's' Chris Mann on Live Shows: 'I Have Some Tricks Up My Sleeve'
7. Carson Daly is bound to shake it. I always know that the host is going to bust a move. Theyre usually very short spurts of activity, so you really have to keep an eye on him. During Mondays commercial breaks, he fist pumped during one song and then did a crazy little jig with Jordis dad, who was wearing a traditional grass skirt. He later told me that it was in observance of the king of Tongas recent death.
8. Things would be purrfect for Cee Lo if only the production allowed the coach to bring his new mascot, Purrfect the cat, to live shows. I overheard Cee Lo Green saying that the he wasnt allowed to bring his new feline friend, since the production feared that it would freak out from the loud sounds and lighting of the live show. That may explain Cee Los outfit Monday night. He lost it over the cat.
9. The Voice groupies. Several young women seated in front of me told the warm up guy that they were wearing Team Blake t-shirts. When the coach heard, he turned around and gave them a big wave. This is the same group of women, by the way, who counted to four and then screamed, We love you, Adam, earlier in the taping. Is there a such thing as The Voice groupies? Note: This show of fandom was much cuter with the eight year olds.
The Voice results show airs Tuesday at 9 p.m.
E-mail: Jethro.Nededog@thr.com; Twitter:@TheRealJethro
0 comments:
Post a Comment